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Would Neocons Control Romney?

September 12, 2012

Mitt Romney has articulated few substantive differences between himself and President Obama on foreign policy, but a Romney victory could dramatically change the U.S. approach to the world because he, like George W. Bush, is surrounding himself with neocon advisers, notes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.

By Paul R. Pillar

It has become almost a truism that foreign policy will not be a major determinant of the outcome of this year’s presidential election. Foreign policy has played a tiny role in the Republican campaign.

Because it takes two to tangle on any campaign issue, foreign affairs are unlikely to become prominent in the remaining eight weeks of the campaign despite any Democratic efforts to make them so, and despite one of the presidential debates in October being devoted to the subject.

Supporters of Mitt Romney spell out his last name. (Photo credit: mittromney.com)

One of the clearest measures of Republican preferences about foreign affairs as far as the campaign is concerned is how remarkably little attention Mitt Romney gave to the topic in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention. What little he did say cannot fairly be described as laying out policy but instead consisted of dispensing a few phrases about such things as throwing allies under buses.

The conventional interpretation of all this is surely correct: that the Romney campaign simply doesn’t see votes to be gained on foreign relations, in the face of what is generally seen as successful foreign policy by the incumbent and a difficulty by the challenger in identifying specific and significant things that he would do differently.

The Romney strategists evidently have concluded that any effort on their part to develop new and more substantive lines of attack on foreign affairs would only detract attention from their laser-like focus on blaming President Obama for everything untoward in the nation’s fiscal and economic affairs.

Citing findings in the recently released poll of American opinion on foreign policy conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Drezner observes that “most of America — and independents in particular — want pretty much the opposite of” what Romney says he wants regarding increased military spending and more hawkish policies toward Iran, Syria, Russia, China, North Korea and illegal immigration.

Drezner further notes that what is striking in the poll results is “how much the majority view on foreign policy jibes with what the Obama administration has been doing in the world: military retrenchment from the Greater Middle East, a reliance on diplomacy and sanctions to deal with rogue states, a refocusing on East Asia, and prudent cuts in defense spending.”

The Chicago Council’s poll, now conducted biannually, is one of the richest sources of data on American views on world affairs. This year’s survey provides additional food for thought regarding the role of foreign policy in the election by including a section that breaks down responses by self-identified Democrats, Republicans and Independents.

The Council’s own interpretation of results downplays the significance of partisan differences. The report states that “Democrats and Republicans are very similar in their views on foreign policy. Though they differ in proportion, only rarely do they outright disagree.”

That statement, however, understates the importance of the differences that do emerge. The report acknowledges significant differences on immigration and on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

For example, 58 percent of Republicans favor seeking United Nations authorization for a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, but only 41 percent of Democrats or Independents do. Without U.N. authorization, all groups oppose a unilateral U.S. strike, but this is markedly more true of Democrats (79 percent) and Independents (73 percent) than Republicans (57 percent).

One can ask this general question: If the challenger is not making foreign policy much of an issue, and if Republicans and Democrats have “very similar views” on most aspects of foreign policy, how much does the outcome of the election really matter as far as foreign policy is concerned? The answer is that it matters a lot, for at least three reasons.

One is that not all issues in foreign relations matter the same, and the few issues on which there is discernible daylight between partisans can turn out to matter a lot. That is certainly true of some of those Middle Eastern issues, with regard to basic questions of war and peace and the potential for getting the United States into big trouble.

A second reason is that leaders shape opinion in addition to being guided by it. One can see some of the effects of this in the partisan patterns reflected in opinion polls. There is no logical, or even demographic or sociological reason, why certain views about, say, health care ought to be correlated with certain views about Iran, but they are.

Many members of the public identify with a particular party and take their cues from leaders of that party as to what they ought to believe regarding foreign-policy issues on which they otherwise know little.

In this sense, leaders of both the governing and opposition parties have bully pulpits, but the most influential bully pulpit is that of the presidency. Especially if a president is most concerned about sustaining the support of his political base, inclinations disproportionately concentrated in the governing party may prevail over naturally arisen sentiments more broadly shared by the American public.

Third, an election determines not only who occupies the Oval Office but also what will be the ideological coloration of an army of political appointees who will have a great deal to say in making foreign policy. It is not always clear before an election who will win the appointment games that get played after an election, but one can at least see the possibilities and probabilities.

In this year’s contest, reelection of the incumbent would leave the overall coloration essentially unchanged, despite individual substitutions likely to occur in some key positions such as secretary of state. Election of the challenger would give a significant opening to neoconservatives who held sway in most of the previous administration, notwithstanding the non-neocons who also would be competing for positions and the presidential ear.

A recent and hugely costly and painful episode that illustrates all of these elements was the Iraq War. The outcome of the 2000 presidential election (and the 9/11 terrorist attack) made the war possible, even though the rhetoric of the 2000 campaign did not make it specifically predictable.

Neocons won enough of the appointment games so that they, in alliance with assertive nationalists in senior positions and an inexperienced president itching to get out from under his father’s foreign-policy shadow, were able to launch their Iraq project.

The mammoth effort to sell the war was so able to shape public opinion that a majority of Americans came to believe that the Iraqi regime and Saddam Hussein were involved in 9/11. The shaping was accomplished not through specific assertions by government officials but by a rhetorical drumbeat that continually linked Iraq and 9/11.

One can find a disturbing similarity in the Chicago Council’s survey results, even though Drezner is pleased to conclude that the poll suggests Americans “have become even more realpolitik” than they were a few years ago.

In one of the poll’s few tests of factual knowledge, respondents were asked what they believe is the current status of Iran’s nuclear program. Only 25 percent got it correct, based on the repeatedly and publicly stated judgment of the U.S. intelligence community: that “Iran is developing some of the technical ability to build nuclear weapons, but has not decided whether to produce them or not.”

Forty-eight percent thought that Iran has decided to produce nuclear weapons and is actively working to do so. Another 18 percent thought Iran already has nuclear weapons.

With politicians in both parties repeatedly beating the Iranian threat drum, this is another disappointing example of the power of rhetorical drumbeats over the minds even of Americans who have developed some views that otherwise look like realpolitik.

Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rose to be one of the agency’s top analysts. He is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The National Interest’s Web site. Reprinted with author’s permission.)

The neo-consevatives (mostly Jewish) will control the next administration no matter who wins – Romney or Obama. All neo-conservatives are part of the Jewish lobby groups – which funds the ‘Islamophobia’ in the US, Canada and across Europe.

The Reuters reported on September 10 that anti-Islam European crusader, Dutch MP Geert Wilders’ many expenses are paid by anti-Muslim Zionist Jews like Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz and Pamela Geller. Geert Wilders became a ‘Zionist icon’ when he produced anti-Islam movie ‘Fitna’. He has compared Holy Qur’an to Hitler’s Mein Kampf – without realizing that Hitler was called Founder of Israel by German author Hennecke Kardel.

Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik cited anti-Islamic comments by Wilders and Pamela Geller in an online manifesto that sought to justify his crimes.

Last year, a study by the Center for American Progress (CAP) revealed that seven pro-Israel US charitable organization have spent $42.6 million during 2001-2009 to spread hatred toward Islam and Muslims.

The notorious Danish cartoons were also produced by Flemming Rose, a Ukrainian Zionist Jew, the cultural editor of Denmark daily Jyllands-Posten.

Last month, America’s largest internal security sevices, the N.Y. Police Department (NYDP) admitted that during its six years of spying on the Muslim communities of New York and New Jersey (both with country’s largest Jewish population) did not generate one single lead that Muslims were involved in terrorist activities against the United States.

American Jewish writer, author and blogger, Max Blumenthal, claimed in an article in December 2011 – the Israelification of US security apparatus. On December 19, 2011, New York City Jewish Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced the building of a 2 million square foot engineering and applied sciences center at the New York-based Cornell University. The facility will be used to test and improve Israel’s drone technology.

look at the medievalist extremists who murdered our ambassador in Libya and the assault on our embassy in Egypt. Remanazi is typical of these wackos, wanting to throw the world back a thousand years into a horrible theocratic nightmare.

MIDDLE CLASS BROKE BROKE Burdened with record debt Wages not keeping up with costs OWNED by Top 10%–who own 73% Net Wealth—83% Financial Wealth-Take 50% Individual Income We must get Spending down but just as important get Revenues up to eliminate deficits and start paying down Debt. It will take real Leadership to do it. Obama cannot do it with a Republican House or Filibustering Senate. Obama American Jobs Program was killed by Republicans for no other reason than not let Obama have any success. It was a disgrace. When will these people start Putting People First.

We must go back taxing wealth. We did it 1945-1980 to pay off WWII Debt. We can do it again to pay off Reagan + Bush II created Debt.

The goal must be fair and more economically just and equitable for all the people. It will never get done as long as Wealth controls our Congress TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT

clarence swinney

September 12, 2012 at 3:34 pm

1980-2009–3 R presidents for 20 years–took 600B budget to 3500B (less wjc itsy)–1000B debt to 10,000B–surplus to 1400B Deficit–Carter 218,000 jobs per month down to 99,000–initiated our involvement in 10 foreign conflicts– smashed s&l–housing-banking–Great Recession but had a recession in all or part of 7 of 20 years—-WANT MORE OF THAT?

incontinent reader

September 12, 2012 at 3:45 pm

In seeking CIty approvals, Mayor Bloomberg and Cornell University have claimed the Technion facility in New York would serve as a feeder and catalyst for start-up technology companies, in order to make NYC a center for new high tech businesses. Technion has at least eight different schools many with clearly peacetime uses- e.g. medicine, energy, etc., but Technion has also been a center for military weapons development and surveillance technology, and there has been a concern that it would be used for police surveillance and military technology here as well. One must also not forget that Netanyahu’s uncle Elisha was a brilliant mathematician and was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences. So the Netanyahu family has a long, strong and complex relationship with the Institute.

incontinent reader

September 12, 2012 at 4:02 pm

Re: Romney, until he articulates a clear foreign policy, one is limited to intuiting what he would do from his past history, if any, in foreign affairs, the bits and pieces of his discourse on specific foreign policy problems, and perhaps most important the team within which he has surrounded himself. So for example, his own experience is limited, though one might infer something from Bain’s activities with its global tentacles. His statements on Israel, the Palestinians, China and Russia- and on military spending- have been ignorant, simplistic, bigoted and jingoistic. And his team- e.g., John Bolton, Michael Hayden, Robert Kagan, et al are the most hardline and neanderthal of the Neocons- and notwithstanding his willingness to bring in Zoellick, Zoellick is sold as a “kinder and gentler” neocon. None of it is encouraging.

Yes R.. is control by Neocons & Zionist Jews …. if he is elected THE US WILL GO DOWN THE DRAIN AT A FASTER PACE … BECAUSE THE NON WHITE AROUND THE WORLD WILL SHOVE IT DOWN THEIR YOU KNOW WHAT…… THE US THE ANGLISH & ANGLO SAXON WITH THE ZIONIST JEWS ARE HATED BY 6+ BILLION PEOPLE . ASK YOURSELVES WHY ?” THESE BUNCH OF THIEVES HAVE BEEN MURDERING, STEALIND LAND ETC.. START WARS FOR CENTURIES IT IS TIME THAT GOD PUNISH THEM !!!!THE TIME IS NEAR …

The answer comes from a committed Zioconservative historian Michael Leeden. Leeden is a founding member of the hawkish Jewish Institution for National Security affairs (JINSA) and former senior staffer at the AIPAC’s think tank, American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Currently, he is associated with Jewish billionaires-funded (Bronfman family, Haim Saban, Michael Steinhardt, Leonard Abramson, etc.) Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which lead the US to war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and is currently pushing Washington to attack Syria and Iran.

On August 13, 2012 Leeden wrote in the PJ Media: “Israel does not want to do it. For as long as I can remember, the Israelis have been trying to get US to do it, because they have long believed that Iran was so big that only a big country could successfully take on the mullahs in a direct confrontation. So Israel’s Iran policy has been to convince us to do whatever the Israelis think is best. And while they’re willing to do their part, they are very reluctant to take on the entire burden”.

That’s what Gilad Atzmon has been advising the American dudes – “Don’t die for the Jews”.

US NET WEALTH-$59,000 Billion 5% CONTROL –74% Stocks & Mutual Funds—1% own 50%–90% own 10% Financial Securities—1% own 60%–90% own 2% Trusts—1% own 38%–90% own 20% Business Equity—1% own 65%–90% own 5% Non-Home Real Estate—1% own 28%–90% own 23% Derivatives—5 US Banks hold $250,000 Billion of $600,000 B world wide Is this a crazy financial system or what? Rich Gamblers Heaven. Problem each winner has a loser.

Netanyahu wants America to do it’s dirty work and bomb Iran. We need our money to rebuild America. We give Israel enough billions every year. We give Egypt 2 billion a year, too.

ORAXX

September 13, 2012 at 5:49 pm

I spent nearly 40 years working for Fortune 500 companies. In that time I met more than a few great American MBA’s. People who were good at a narrowly focused number crunching job but who never read a book in their life they didn’t have to read for school. In that vein, I see Mitt Romney who merely regurgitates what he thinks he is expected to say in any given situation. He’s clearly intelligent but he gives no evidence of having any intellectual curiosity what so ever.